Word-representability of subdivisions of triangular grid graphs

Abstract

A graph $G=(V,E)$ is word-representable if there exists a word $w$ over the alphabet $V$ such that letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in $w$ if and only if $(x,y)\in E$. A triangular grid graph is a subgraph of a tiling of the plane with equilateral triangles defined by a finite number of triangles, called cells. A subdivision of a triangular grid graph is replacing some of its cells by plane copies of the complete graph $K_4$. Inspired by a recent elegant result of Akrobotu et al., who classified word-representable triangulations of grid graphs related to convex polyominoes, we characterize word-representable subdivisions of triangular grid graphs. A key role in the characterization is played by smart orientations introduced by us in this paper. As a corollary to our main result, we obtain that any subdivision of boundary triangles in the Sierpiński gasket graph is word-representable.